The present invention generally relates to a valve and, more particularly, to a ball valve for use in the fire fighting industry.
Valves, specifically ball valves, within the fire fighting industry have gone through relatively little change over the years except with regard to actuation method. Initially, valves were manually operated through push/pull rods attached to the valve handle in order to open and close the valve. However, over time, handwheel gear drive actuation, electric actuation, rack and sector actuation and slow close actuation have been developed to provide flexibility and expanded capability of the valve applications. Because the actuation device for each method is significantly different, revised valve bodies were developed to accommodate attachment of the different actuation devices to the valve. While a small portion of the exterior of the valve was changed, the basic water way of the valve was not altered. The result is a single valve requirement, 2.5″ ball valve for instance, will have as many as four different body configurations to provide the user with the opportunity to select from the five different actuation methods.
Consequently, a valve manufacturer is required to have a large inventory of valves to accommodate the various different body configurations. Furthermore, a different mold is required for each valve, which increases the cost to produce the different style valves. In addition, once the valve is installed because the valve bodies are not interchangeable, the valve actuation methods cannot be changed after installation. Furthermore, repair parts for the respective valves tend to be more expensive due to the lack of commonality of the valve bodies.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved valve that can accommodate different actuation devices without the need for different valve bodies.